In a mobile communication system as typified by a mobile telephone or the like, with the development of multimedia information, large volume data such as still image and moving image, as well as speech data, has been processed. In the future, since it is expected that the data volume will further increase, it is actively studied to realize high transmission rate by making frequency band of a radio signal higher.
However, since a radio signal of high frequency is largely attenuated depending on transmission distance, the radius of a cell covered by a base station becomes small, and therefore it is necessary to install more base stations. In a high population density area, sufficient cost effectiveness can be obtained if more base stations are installed, and therefore the problem cannot be exposed. However, in a low population density area, for example, it is impractical to install base stations every few hundred meters. Therefore, in a low population density area, it is desired to enable communication between base stations and communication terminals without increasing the number of base stations.
As a means for solving this problem, there is a technology called a multihop system (or multihop network) (for example, refer to Patent Document 1.) In this multihop system, each communication terminal has a communication relay function and relays communication between another communication terminal and a base station. Therefore, a communication terminal that is located outside the communication area (outside a cell) and cannot directly communicate with the base station (hereinafter referred to as a “relay requesting station”) requests another communication terminal that can directly communicate with the base station to relay communication. Then, the communication terminal requested to relay communication (hereinafter referred to as a “relay station”) establishes a link to the base station, and relays communication between the communication terminal outside the area and the base station. By this means, the communication terminal outside the area can communicate with the base station.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI11-289349